Lila

Abandoning her homeless existence to become a minister's wife, Lila reflects on her hardscrabble life on the run with a canny young drifter and her efforts to reconcile her painful past with her husband's gentle Christian worldview.

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If you want a book that rocks you to your core, this is it. Marilynn Robinson take you deep into the human experience, with an exploration of what it means to be without safety in emotional and physical terms. The main character, Lila, is a witness for what happens to people on the edge of existence, and what it means when someone throws a lifeline.

Sadly this book was tedious to follow. Although the narrator is a poorly educated woman, Lila, much of the writing reads like John Ame's prose in Gilead. She has used the same writing style for this new main character and this gives me the idea that Ms. Robinson is tethered to one sort of voice

The writing reminded me of William Faulkner's writing style: very, very poor itinerant folks who are uneducated but not ignorant. They live the only life they've known with no idea of how to improve their lives. Each day is a struggle to find food and shelter and avoid danger. The story between Doll and Lila is heartfelt and loving and yet you sense that all will not end well for either of them. Lila finds John to love her and protect her, yet one has the sense all the way through the story that Lila might just disappear from his life any day. It would have been easier to read if the story had been parceled into chapters. It was somewhat grueling to read.

This slow, thoughtful, at times agonizing book is even better than its predecessors. An honest view of Lila's life, a dreadful childhood that both scars her and provides a sense of wonder. Abandonment, more than once, leads to a lack of trust, so that once she meets "the old man" and they marry, she can trust enough to tell him so. Yet eventually, they are happy together, especially when their son is born. This book is in a sense the backstory of "Gilead" but a wonderful read on its own. While it might be "easier" if you know the biblical references, its wisdom is accessible even if the reader rejects the theology. The point here is relationships, however they are based. Robinson is an incredibly wonderful writer.